Biden set to name secretary of state. What to know about expected pick Antony Blinken
President-elect Joe Biden is reportedly expected to nominate Antony Blinken for secretary of state this week.
Biden is set to name his first Cabinet picks Tuesday, senior adviser Symone Sanders told “Face the Nation” on Sunday morning. The announcements are expected as the Biden-Harris transition team has been assembling White House staff and moving forward with the transfer of power process as the former vice president prepares to take office on Jan. 20, 2021.
Sources familiar with Biden’s picks have told multiple news outlets Blinken will be among those announced Tuesday.
Blinken will need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate once nominated by Biden.
Who is Antony Blinken?
He served as deputy secretary of state under former President Barack Obama starting in 2015.
Prior to that, he worked as deputy national security adviser from 2013 to 2015, CBS News reports. He was also a member of former President Bill Clinton’s National Security Council staff from 1994 until 2001 and was senior director for European affairs from 1999 until 2001, according to the U.S. State Department.
He and Biden have worked together for nearly two decades.
Blinken was Biden’s “top aide” when he led the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, The New York Times reports.
He later served as Biden’s national security adviser during his vice presidency before taking on the deputy secretary of state role, The New York Times reports, and “helped develop the American response to political upheaval and instability across the Middle East.”
Blinken is now a managing partner at the advisory firm he co-founded, WestExec Advisors, NPR reports.
He has already been working as Biden’s “global liaison” during his transition period and scheduled the president-elect’s congratulatory phone calls with foreign leaders, CBS News reports.
James Melville, a former career diplomat, told CNN that Blinken was a “terrific” deputy secretary of state and that he cheered when he heard Biden is expected to pick him.
The Secretary of State role
The secretary of state serves as the president’s “chief foreign affairs adviser,” the State Department says.
Responsibilities of the role include negotiating on issues related to foreign affairs, advising the president on diplomatic appointments, protecting U.S. interests overseas, promoting “beneficial economic intercourse” with other countries and negotiating, interpreting and terminating treaties.
If confirmed, Blinken would be a “leading force” in the Biden administration’s efforts to “reframe” the country’s relationships with the rest of the world, The Associated Press reports.
His top priorities will include re-establishing the U.S. as a “trusted ally” ready to rejoin the World Health Organization, the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear deal — all of which were dropped or opposed by President Donald Trump — and other global institutions, the Times reports.
This story was originally published November 23, 2020 at 6:54 AM with the headline "Biden set to name secretary of state. What to know about expected pick Antony Blinken."
